PERROT, PIRATES AND PARISIAN GROCERS: SIR JOHN PERROT, COURT FACTION, JURISDICTIONAL CONFLICT AND THE AFFAIR OF THE PETER AND PAUL

Abstract

The Marseilles ship, the Peter and Paul, became the object of a bitter dispute that internationalized an incident involving the royal courts of England, France, Portugal and Spain. At the time it was something of a cause célèbre that preoccupied the court, Privy Council and High Court of Admiralty. The significance of the ship's detention lies not so much in the incident itself but in the events surrounding it and the light it sheds on competing and conflicting jurisdictions involving the Westminster and Dublin governments. It reveals much about the bitter factionalism at the royal court which involved the Pembrokeshire magnate Sir John Perrot and Walter Devereux, earl of Essex.